Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to healthcare information management and systems, and particularly to management and reconciliation of healthcare information.
Description of the Prior Art
In the field of healthcare, a problem has existed and continues to exist regarding the reliability as well as disparity of sources of information that is often critical to patient care among other reasons. The sources of information each employ a unique coding system or subset of a coding system to define concepts, diagnoses, measurements, observations, and the like. When an actor in a medical system receives new information (or “data”) from an event, the question for the medical system is “Where does this data fit in?” The actor must, problematically, make an inference to determine which action to pursue.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus for reconciling healthcare information in a manner that is reliable and usable to those in the healthcare field, including patients.